Hundreds of Conservative supporters have spoken and their man has been selected.

Lawyer Derek Sloan was chosen to represent Hastings-Lennox and Addington in the 2019 Federal election at the Conservative’s nomination meeting at Tweed Elementary School over the weekend. “I find myself very concerned with the direction of the country,” Sloan said when reached for comment.

“I felt we’re moving in a direction where people are afraid to express their views and opinions,” he went on to say about what he chose to run. He gave the example of someone talking about how the government is handling the border situation. He says people expressing a certain viewpoint might be called “bad names.” “I just felt that we’re moving in a direction that’s harmful to Canada,” he added.

Sloan says he’s a family man. He has 2 girls and a boy with his wife. His wife works at a Nurse Practitioner in Oshawa. Sloan says before becoming a Lawyer, he owned a furniture business in Oshawa.

Going off of that, Sloan says that past experience showed him how important small business is. “Local small business is the backbone of our community,” he said. He talked about how some small business owners might be concerned about a bigger brand name store moving in down the street because that might cause their rent rate to go up. He says he’s a business owner at heart.

Sloan says he wants to involve youth more in politics and work towards making rural living more affordable. As a start, he says he wants to scrap the carbon tax. He added that another priority for him is defending free of speech. “I think we’re a country where people don’t always have to agree, but it’s tradition that we can hold different views without repercussion or reprisal,” Sloan says.

The Federal election will be held in October 2019. Sloan will go up against incumbent Hastings-Lennox and Addington M.P. Mike Bossio of the Liberal party.